Short update on my patterning! As I'm working on getting eighteenth century patterns first (so that I could, theoretically, finish writing one book and have it started on the road to publication while I work on taking patterns for the next), I have to work hard to find extant garments - there are very few left in the area.
So far, I have sourced and am making appointments to pattern:
- Fitted jacket, French, in a pinkish brocaded silk - ca. 1740?
- Mantua of mustard-gold damasked silk, ca. 1750, possibly slightly altered
- Embroidered stomacher, date uncertain
- Damasked silk dressing gown, early to mid-century
- Gold silk petticoat, heavily quilted with all-over pattern, no longer on waistband
- Silk petticoat, quilted with overlapping scale pattern in body, border of something else, 1750-1775?
- White silk taffeta sacque and petticoat, brocaded with polychrome floral bunches, trimmed with self-fabric and fly-fringe, 1760-1773 (previously patterned)
- Gowns (anglaises):
- Blue and white striped lustring (I think), pleated en fourreau, with loops to wear rétroussée
- With petticoat; remade in the 1780s, but unsure of original date
- With petticoat, both of mulberry colored damasked silk (probably early or mid-century); remade in 1780s, has loops to wear rétroussée
- With petticoat, both of pink silk taffeta; pleated en fourreau toward center back, trimmed with scalloped self-fabric edgings, 1775-1780
- Striped silk, altered in nineteenth century, some self-fabric trim
- Jacket of pink silk lustring, early 1790s
- Two transitional muslin gowns of the late 1790s with similar constructions and backs pleated to fit; one has fitted, curved sleeves, and the other fuller and unshaped(one patterned)
- Possibly a pair of aprons
Now, I do have some gaps. I'd love to find a really early mantua (good luck, there appear to be only two even in the Met), another sacque, a few more jackets, a jacket or gown with winged cuffs, a non-muslin 1790s gown ... there is certainly space to add more garments, should I come across them, but of course it is difficult to come across them.
